Update?

So, remember how last semester I mentioned that I was working on a paper about epic heros and their monsters? Well, I wrote that paper, and I submitted it to the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, and I got accepted, and Truman funded me as part of its delegation, and at the moment I'm in La Crosse, Wisconsin, sitting on a comfy hotel bed. Timeline up until now:
- November: wrote the paper
- January: found out it was accepted to NCUR
- February: wrote on my to-do list "prepare NCUR presentation"
- end of March: actually did
- April: finished cutting down the paper
- March and April: had at least one performance each week, and probably strained my throat quite a bit...
- April 12: practiced the presentation three times, out of the planned eight practice run-throughs
- April 13: got the flu
- April 14: lost my voice
- April 15: developed a really bad cough, but got over the flu
- April 16: barely managed to have my voice be audible during my presentation, which did go really well. I was the third speaker in the time slot, but there wasn't a fourth, so the moderator let me go over, which was good-- I was about four minutes over because of my voice. There was one professor there from the university who's teaching a course on heroes, and I think she must have asked her class to come for extra credit-- she told me beforehand that she was really looking forward to my talk, and then right before I started about thirty extra people filed in. Most of the audiences I was in had about 10-15 people... and I had an audience of 40 or so. That was cool. And they asked really good questions, that I had good answers to. And then we headed back to the hotel and I coughed a lot and lost be voice the rest of the way again.

I like Truman's perspective on sending people to conferences: since we're representing Truman, they don't make us pay for food. And whoever made up the budget is nuts, because they give us $25 a day! Which is awesome. Especially since breakfast and lunch are included at the conference. So I've eaten prime rib, and cheesecake (twice), and soup, and all sorts of delicious things. And I bought some gummy butterflies and a present for a friend (Kristen-- I got you an ice cube tray that makes seal-shaped ice cubes, for your ice-cube tray collection. Don't let me forget to give it to you!) and a pair of freshwater pearl earrings. So in conclusion, my rural public university put me up in a fancy hotel and bought me prime rib and pearls. Ha.

It has been a wonderful few days with good friends and good presentations and good food and fun shopping. It'll be annoying to go back to Kirksville and have to do homework (yuck) and write papers (yucker). But, then again, I do only have two more weeks of classes before exams and summer!

The End
(of this post, not of anything more substantial)